BOYNTON REQUESTS SURVIVE FIRST ROUND

BOYNTON BEACH -- The city's $1.5 million application for federal grant money to improve living conditions in the north end has passed through the first round of scrutiny unscathed as all six requests were determined to be eligible for funding.

Tougher rounds are to come, however, as 21 cities compete for the $4.4 million available through the Palm Beach County Housing and Community Development Department for the 1988-89 fiscal year.

Remar Harvin, director of the Housing and Community Development program, said he will now contact the cities and ask to be put on their agendas to discuss their project proposals.

"By June 28, we will have determined the eligible projects and made our recommendations as to who to fund," he said. "In July, we'll advertise public hearings and the recommendations will go to our countywide advisory board in July."

On July 26, the County Commission will consider the final recommendations, and those recommendations will be forwarded to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development by Aug. 31.

The top priority listed in Boynton Beach's grant application is the completion of the Cherry Hills work begun several years ago. This year the city is asking for $105,200 to finish that street beautification program, which has included street, sidewalk, gutter, drainage and swale improvements.

The No. 2 priority on the application is housing. The city is seeking about $350,000 to purchase, develop and donate vacant lots in residential areas throughout the north end to "encourage development of those lots which will in turn combat the trash and refuse problem which currently exists as vacant lots invite illegal dumping."

Last year the Department of Housing and Community Development froze the city's funding for a few months because of the trash problem in the north end.

The next three requests in the city's list of priorities all involve recreation. The application seeks $136,000 to provide additional space in the proposed Northside Community Center; $100,000 to build a lighted basketball court, two lighted handball courts and provide landscaping and irrigation in Sara Simms Park; and $337,000 to acquire the Lanehart subidivison property and Sutton Mannor.